1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image printing apparatus, an image printing method, a program for an image printing method and a program having a program for an image printing method recorded thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cent years, scrap booking of producing a scrap book has been and is being spread widely. The scrap booking is one of papercraft hobbies. According to the scrap booking, a photograph is cut out in a desired shape and is pasted to a board with various decorations applied thereto to produce an original scrap book.
Thus, various boards for a scrap book, various decorating items for decorations, scales for cutting out a photograph, scissors for use for cutting and so forth are provided to users of such scrap booking. Consequently, in scrap booking, a scale used in cutting a photograph can be placed on a photograph to draw a line for cutting, and the photograph can be cut out along the line for cutting using scissors. Therefore, the photograph can be cut out in a desired one of various shapes such as a star shape, a heart shape or a diamond shape in accordance with the shape of the scale and pasted to a board.
In regard to such various processes relating to a photograph as described above, a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-114464 wherein an image is printed directly on album paper in accordance with a layout desired by a user. Another method is disclosed in JP-A-2003-532205 wherein each image is printed with a format thereof set so as to correspond to the layout in which the image is to be pasted to an album. A further method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268353 wherein a region designated by a user is printed selectively. A still further method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-321010 wherein register marks with which a photograph is to be cut appropriately are printed together with an image.
Incidentally, in scrap booking, when it is tried to use a scale to cut out a photograph, the image pickup subject image on the photograph may be smaller than the scale or conversely may be greater than the scale. In such an instance, the user may want to have the size of the photograph adjusted to the size of the scale or conversely may want to have the size of the scale adjusted to the size of the photograph. Or the user may want to change the size of both of the scale and the photograph. Therefore, if such disagreement in size between the scale and the photograph can be eliminated simply and with certainty, then it is considered possible to produce a scrap book simply and readily in an intended design and hence enhance the pleasure in scrap booking significantly.
Meanwhile, where a line for cutting is drawn using a scale to cut out a photograph, if sufficient care is not taken to cut the photograph, then the line for cutting may remain on the photograph and deteriorate the finish of the scrap book. Therefore, if a photograph can be cut out simply such that no such line for cutting may remain thereon, then it is considered possible to enhance the finish of the scrap book significantly and hence enhance the pleasure in scrap booking further significantly.
In such cases as described above, the method of, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-114464 or JP-A-2003-532205 may be applied to print a photograph. However, the methods disclosed in the documents deteriorate the pleasure in preparation of a scrap book through cutting out of a photograph by manual operation. Although also it seems advisable to apply the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-268353 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 11-321010, the methods are disadvantageous in that they cannot be applied practically to cutting out of a photograph in a complicated and diverse shape as in scrap booking.